Powell defends Afghan policies

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell defended Barack Obama’s performance as president and his policies on the economy, Afghanistan and the Middle East. But he said the Democratic president he endorsed should have done a better job of communicating to the American public that he was trying to get them back to work.

Powell also said he misses working with military service people, and that he’s looking forward to new and exciting opportunities.

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“When I endorsed then-Sen. Obama in 2008, I thought he was the right choice for the country,” Powell said in an hour-long interview with CNN’s Larry King Monday. “The country was in deep economic despair. I think the country needed a significant and transformational change, and I thought President Obama would provide that for us.”

“It was a hard decision for me because I was so close to Sen. McCain,” Powell said. “But I thought this was the right choice, and that's the choice that I made.”

“Now, in the almost two years since, I think the president has done a good job in stabilizing the economic system,” Powell said. “I think he's done a good job in moving in a number of directions with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan and trying to launch the Middle East peace process again.”

But Powell offered some critiques of Obama’s performance as well, arguing that “he has not communicated to the American people what we're going to do about getting jobs back and getting the economic recovery down to the retail level, where people are still unemployed.”

Powell also defended Obama’s Afghanistan policy, saying Afghanistan is not Vietnam. And he tried to explain the recent shift from a partial, conditions-based drawdown in July 2011 to 2014, when Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he believes Afghan forces can take the lead in security the country.

“It depends on what things look like in July,” Powell said of how many troops might be withdrawn in July 2011. “It doesn't mean we're pulling out 100,000 troops. I don't know how many troops we'll pull out. And he has said, and his associates have said in — inside the national security team, is that it's conditions-based.”

Powell said “some signs of improvement” are visible in Afghanistan. “But I cannot tell how firm that is and how real it is and whether it will still be there a couple of years from now.”

“The only answer to this is for us to do the best we can, but then it's the Afghan authorities that have to take it over.”

Regarding his own ambitions, Powell was coy.

“I enjoyed my government service,” Powell told King. “But I always like to look forward. So I'm always looking for something new and exciting.”

“In the 40 years of service that I had, what I miss the most is just being with fellow servicepersons, people who were G.I.s or diplomats or foreign specialists,” he said. “I miss working with people. The tension, the pressure, the challenges — that was an important part of all of those assignments.”